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Cameron: elderly can boost economy

AFTER coming to the rescue of hoodies, David Cameron will tomorrow champion elderly Britons in a speech calling for the value of the ageing population to be recognised.

He will say that traditional stereotypes about the elderly being a financial drain on society need to be challenged.

The Tory leader will take a sideswipe at Tony Blair’s attempts to rebrand the country as “cool Britannia”, describing it as an affront to the elderly.

In the speech, which will follow a visit to a pensioners’ tai chi class in east London, Cameron will say: “We have certain cultural and economic assumptions which make us think about older people in terms of cost . . .

“Sometimes politicians add to this stereotype. Tony Blair did this with the whole ‘cool Britannia’ episode. Only the new, the young and the modern could be part of the picture of Britain he wanted to paint. It was absurd.